As many of you may know, Oblivion was a great Roleplaying game, and it had many great roleplaying aspects that improved from Morrowind. NPCs had schedules, ate, slept, traveled. They even had Imperial Legionnaires patrolling the roads on horseback. I thought it was great, as did many others. But, understandably, many were quite upset at Skyrims downgrade to RP. You cant hold down a conversation with any NPC you wish, NPCs do not travel, and guards do not patrol on horseback.

What Hold Riders does is that it adds in at least one Rider for each Hold that patrols between the Settlements, occupied mines, occupied guard posts, and occupied ruins in each hold. To help make these NPCs work for all users, they are not affiliated with either faction in the Civil War, which means if Whiterun falls, the Whiterun Rider will not change. She will still be in her uniform, and still be friendly, for she does not serve either side (she still will arrest players and bring them to Dragonsreach, though). This not only keeps the mod script free  (a win win for all), but also helps those who use mods that allow conquered cities to keep their original uniform instead of going under martial law and occupied by military troops.

Also, an added bonus! An unused NPC, whose existence is only confirmed through one conversation at Darkwater Crossing, named Dasturn has been re-created and re-added to Darkwater Crossing with his own life that he lives. Now, some users claims Derkeethus was originally named Dasturn, but really? Dasturn sounds more Nordic than Argonian.

FAQ

Question: Which file do I need to download?
Answer: Do I need to bust out some finger puppets and explain this through interpretative dance?

Question: Do they respawn?
Answer: Yes. They do indeed respawn.

Question: You said one Rider, you added only one rider in this mod?
Answer: Nope, I added Riders to each hold depending on said Hold's size, number of settlements, distance between settlements, and extra merc Riders depending on what influential family exists in the Hold.

Question: The riders do not fight on horseback, what gives?
Answer: Its simple. Skyrim engine limitations. NPCs do not normally fight on horseback and I have no fucking idea why, but there is a mod that fixes that: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24286

Question: Will you ever port this to SSE?
Answer: It has been ported.

Question: My Riders don't ride their horses and instead walk around with the horses following them/doing other things. Help plez?
Answer: AI bug that affects all Skyrim NPCs, whether modded or vanilla. Nudge the guard closer to the horse or just ignore it and keep going. The Rider will eventually mount the horse, it all depends on the proximity of each other. If the horse is in sufficient proximity, the Rider will actively seek out and mount the horse. Hope this helps.